Well, apparently it was just that easy. I spoke to former Freedom-South Riding Athletic Director Rusty Lowery - now the A.D. at Woodgrove - at last week's Dulles District golf tournament who said "the Wolverines" was the winning submission from the 861 students of Loudoun Valley High School and Harmony Intermediate who voted. The "Timber Wolves" finished second in voting. Personally, Lowery admitted he was partial to the "Timber Rattlers" but the kids didn't go for it. After all, why not pick another non-indigenous animal to strike fear into the hearts of opposing teams?

At least they've got the alliteration thing going. Down the road in Leesburg, Principal Pamela Paul-Jacobs decided to avoid controversy and nix any semblance of an Indian moniker - for a school named after the Tuscarora tribe - instead narrowing down the options to the Timber Wolves (who knew they were so popular?), the Huskies and the Tigers (which replaced "the Tribe" on the ballot for incoming students). The students went with the Huskies (688 votes) over the Timber Wolves (529) by a narrow margin. Tuscarora's colors will be royal blue, black and white.

Both schools will open in the fall of 2010 with 23 athletic programs and will compete in the AA Dulles District in all sports other than football. With their openings falling in the middle of a two-year football scheduling cycle, they will not be eligible to join the district in 2010, but according to both schools Web sites, they "plan to play a full varsity schedule and petition the Dulles District, Region II and the Virginia High School League to allow us to be eligible to qualify for the postseason using the point system."